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Sunday, July 5, 2009

A Message to America

With feelings, I send this message from my leader as my personal note of felicitation to American friends on the 4th of July.

I believe that your people earnestly desire peace. We, who have just begun to live, can hardly wish for annihilation to overtake us when we have not yet taken our first few breaths. What can we do to maintain peace in the world beyond keeping our own house in order? It seems to us in the East that only those who can make war can primarily maintain peace. If they are in earnest about it, is their way not clear?

When we find strong and powerful nations boldly defying aggression, we are heartened by their stand but we ask ourselves two questions:

  • Firstly, is aggression to be defied only where we dislike the aggressor or is aggression to be defied in all its forms, big and small, and wherever it may appear? If the first, we will be doing no honor to democracy or justice or freedom but to the principle of biological survival. If the second, we will be serving the cause of freedom everywhere and giving hope to new nations.
  • Secondly, is defiance, however stimulating it may be, enough? Are there not vast fields for constructive effort by which alone can enduring peace be built up?

Yours is a great country with enormous resources of wealth, experience and technical skill. We, who believe in individual initiative, effort and enterprise do not believe that the era of private ownership is over. But we do believe that we have entered upon an era when capital should come out of its shell and move in the spheres of international social objectives and move on from exploitation to production.

Your country fought for its own independence once. You have been great exponents and the jealous guardians of freedom. Words from your Declaration of Independence and your constitution have inspired men in far-off lands. You have shown to the world what human effort can do for human welfare. You have no colonies and I believe no territorial ambitions. Has not your history therefore equipped you more than most nations to be among the leading architects of the enlightened internationalism of the future?

We Asiatics in general and Pakistan in particular are waiting to see what your answer will be. We do not know what you will say but should you decide that construction is the best way to defy destruction, you will find the people of Pakistan amongst your staunchest friends.

I have spoken to you with great candor and from the depth of my heart for we are a simple and frank people as you are; we hold our freedom dear as you do and we love peace, if possible, even more than you do.

First PM of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan,
University of California, Berkeley, on May 16, 1950.

5 comments:

  1. "I have spoken to you with great candor and from the depth of my heart for we are a simple and frank people as you are"

    Liaquat Sahib made two mistakes in this sentence.
    1) We are a simple and frank people.
    No, we are a Naive people.
    2) "...as you are." :) Sir, no further comment is required to elucidate why this was an error, I suppose. Historically, the american govt.'s personality has usually been far from that of its people. Hence, yes in respect of the "people" of US, the statement is correct. However, I suppose the Collective Ego of the US people is yet to manifest itself.

    Some of the other assumptions have also proved to be drastic in hindsight.

    "You have no colonies and I believe no territorial ambitions"
    -----------------------------------

    A much better tone was perhaps set by the Quaid himself earlier than this occasion. The occasion was when the first US Ambassador to Pakistan presented his credentials to the Quaid. The Quaid's response exuded confidence as a nation.

    It is available at the following link:

    http://www.humsafar.info/480226_pak.php

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  2. "we hold our freedom dear as you do and we love peace, if possible, even more than you do."

    Great statement from a great leader.
    We do Need such a great,bold,courageous and brave leader these days.Who can talk with his head UP with all.

    "you will find the people of Pakistan amongst your staunchest friends."

    I think,nowadays Every leader of Pakistan is following it with his heart and soul but have forgotten the conditions Liaqat Ali khan mentioned.
    We need to learn from our past experiences and from the lives of our successful national heroes.

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  3. Vega and ReeBz, thanks. Jinnah's reply to the US Ambassador is also the oldest post on my other blog ABOUT AAFIA: http://aboutaafia.blogspot.com/2008/08/word-from-jinnah.html

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  4. This post is one of the most powerful and current here and I want to do my part to gather more visibility for such timely and urgent words!

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  5. Vagabonds Ventures, is there an alternative link to this one as this doesn't come up for me in a search? Thank you for your comments.
    http://www.humsafar.info/480226_pak.php

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